I should follow up my post. The reason I asked if you had ever purchased from Amazon was that is how they got your e-mail address. I have done a lot of business with Amazon and have never received a complaint (from me or any of my customers) about SPAM...since I do business with them, I thought I would research this a little bit as I am as Anti-SPAM as they come.
From what I have been reading, it was not Amazon that spammed, but an outside source that was linking to the book at Amazon. I'm not sure how somebody can hold Amazon accountable for someone else's actions. To show what I mean, what if an unknown person sent out 100,000 spam messages promoting alldeaf.com without Alex' permission. Does this mean you would be angry at Alex because of something someone else did even if he had no knowledge of it? In the internet world, this is called
Joe Jobbing. Because you received an e-mail promoting a book at Amazon, it does not mean that Amazon was responsible for it.
I continued to look into it and there are plenty of accusations that the books publisher was behind the spamming with the links going to Amazon. I have also read that this is why Amazon removed the reviews, based on the response from the spam messages. Did legit reviews get lost in there...probably. But if the publisher sends out hundreds of thousands promoting their book on Amazon, why would you expect Amazon to keep any of the reviews? If this is the case, I commend Amazon for removing the reviews because I would consider any reviews (pro or against) as biased and untrustworthy. I want to read reviews from those that have actually read the book, not because the publisher sent out all the spam and received a response from that spam.
In reference to the spam, who has more to gain or lose over sending the spam. Amazon is a very large reputable company...what would they gain by spamming an unsolicited list of e-mails to promote a single book. They would have a lot to lose by doing that (from the new anti-spam laws to being blacklisted on mailservers world-wide). What would they gain from it? Not much...it would hurt them more than help.
So, what does the publisher have to lose by spamming their book? Many companies (un reputable) spam unsolicited e-mail lists and sometimes this spam works. I would say that the publisher has more to gain from spamming than to lose. After all, the publisher uses a third party spammer to send people to Amazon's website...they have nothing to lose at all (since Amazon takes the hit not the publisher). So, if they sent out hundreds of thousands of e-mails and sold 100 books from that spam, they have benefitted more than Amazon would. The third scenario (and rather likely) is that another group who has more to gain than either the publisher or Amazon is responsible for the spam...anti semetic groups, or those in favor of a new policy in Israel.
Lastly, I question your intent...especially when you are complaining about SPAM. I see you have only one post...came, posted a promotion for a book, and then left. But, I will give you the benefit of the doubt here...
So, I do some more research...and what do I find. I look at your post and I do a search on the EXACT terms that you use...cut and paste the first few sentences..and
---HERE IS THE RESULT--- Your paragraph has been used (as of my posting) on 330 message boards. And what have I discovered....many of those posts are by your same username...with 1 posts on each board...Many webmasters had the sense to remove your posts...but its the same thing on american idol message boards to this deaf website, to a musicans website, to a PERL programming website.
So, Amazon was right in removing the reviews because based solely on your posts and the spamming you are doing of that website..it is not Amazon responsible for the spam.
Its too bad that I took your claim at face value and researched it...its shame because you will never be back to see this response.
